BotswanaCopyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, 2000 (Cap. 68:02), Database Protection
Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 2000, Database Protection
In force.
A database right rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Licensing
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Treat a database compiled through the selection, coordination, or arrangement of its contents as a protected literary work: do not reproduce the whole or a substantial part of it without the rights holder's authorisation, even though the underlying facts and data are not themselves protected.
- Do not rely on the Act's private-reproduction exception to copy the whole or a substantial part of a database; that exception does not extend to a database.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Section 31(1) makes for-profit infringement of a protected right an offence carrying a fine up to P20,000 or imprisonment up to ten years, or both, for a first offence; section 31(2) raises a second or subsequent offence to a minimum fine of P30,000 and a maximum of P5,000,000, or imprisonment up to ten years, or both.
Penalty structure
Section 31(1) caps a first for-profit infringement offence at a fine of P20,000 or imprisonment up to ten years, or both. Section 31(2) raises a second or subsequent offence to a minimum fine of P30,000 and a maximum fine of P5,000,000, or imprisonment up to ten years, or both; that maximum is the instrument's ceiling. Section 30(4) separately fines up to P10,000 or imprisonment up to five years for failing to comply with a court order to destroy infringing copies, a smaller and distinct exposure.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- BWP
- Fixed cap
- 5,000,000
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does a collection of "mere data (data bases)" that a crawler assembles by automated selection meet the requirement in section 4 (1) (b) of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, 2000 that it be "original by reason of the selection, co-ordination or arrangement of their contents"?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 13(2)(c) carves a database out of the private-reproduction permission, and section 13(2)(e) states the normal-exploitation limit. The Act has no text-and-data-mining exception, so there is no condition under it for a miner to record, and nothing in the provisions this row describes requires a log, a register or a retained record. The Act's Copyright Office register and security-device rules (ss. 22B, 35A to 35E) govern the Office and the makers of sound and audiovisual recordings, are not cited by this row and are not read into it.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Botswana's Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, 2000 (Cap. 68:02, Act No. 8 of 2000, commenced by S.I. 65 of 2001, and as amended by Act No. 6 of 2006, commenced by S.I. 71 of 2006) defines "literary work" to include "a table of compilation", so a database that is an intellectual creation through the selection, coordination, or arrangement of its contents is protected as a literary work; there is no separate sui generis database right.
The Act's private-reproduction exception, which otherwise permits a single personal copy of a published work, expressly does not extend to reproduction of the whole or a substantial part of a database (section 13(2)(c)), so reproducing a substantial part of a protected database without authorisation is not shielded by that exception. The underlying facts and data within a database remain unprotected; only the selection or arrangement is a protected work.
Criminal sanctions apply to a person who infringes a protected right for profit (section 31(1), a fine up to P20,000 or imprisonment up to ten years, or both, for a first offence, rising to a minimum fine of P30,000 and a maximum of P5,000,000, or imprisonment up to ten years, or both, for a second or subsequent offence), and civil remedies include injunctions, damages, and exemplary damages for an infringement prejudicial to honour or reputation (section 30).
The Act provides that it comes into operation on such day as the Minister appoints by order made by statutory instrument, and the day on which the provisions this row describes came into operation has not been located.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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